The wine will flow at the Nuyorican, as Faux-Real turns NYC’s premiere poetry café into an ancient Greek marketplace where ideas are flung about like baseballs at a dunk-tank, jump-starting Aristophanes’ bawdy classic in a show designed to delight Athenians and New Yorkers alike. Faux-Real does LYSISTRATA in 2015 just like the Greeks did in 411 BCE: a tightly orchestrated Greek chorus, broad and bold acting style, live music, colorful masks, and, of course – just like the Greeks had – some oversized phalluses.

Written (or chiseled) over 2425 years ago, Lysistrata was first presented to Athenians during a brief respite of peace after a series of miserable wars and corrupt politicians. Historically scripted by a man, performed by men to an all-male audience, LYSISTRATA survived ancient patriarchy and wound up as a vehicle for feminist ideology, pacifist causes, and a challenge to the powers that be, asking questions we still ask today: What are women? What are men? Who is responsible for war? Can anyone stop it?

Breaking from the Greek tradition, Faux-Real’s LYSISTRATA features a co-ed, multi-ethnic, multi-generational cast of 15.